Date of Completion

12-18-2018

Degree Type

Honors Thesis

Discipline

Theater (THEA)

First Advisor

Kevin J. Wetmore

Abstract

My Theatre Arts thesis project was working as an assistant director (AD) on the play “Bright Half Life,” alongside my director/professor, Dana Resnick. This play ran from August 29 through September 1 at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester in the Strub Theatre at LMU. For this project I was expected to perform a number of duties and responsibilities. The other assistant director and I were present at every production meeting, rehearsal, and performance to assist our director in establishing, creating, and guiding her vision for the play into life. We all met with the designers for the show’s set, lights, sound, and costumes to collaborate on what physical stimuli to bring together in order to exemplify the feelings we believed the show to hold. The other AD and I were also expected to work together on a script analysis of the play in order to expand our knowledge on the show and focus on many details within the story. This expansive research helped our team work through many of the questions that arose during the rehearsal process regarding the story and the characters’ intentions. Because of the presence of two AD’s, we could each split off with the two student-actors in the show and run lines with them individually, which was beneficial because of the women’s presence onstage for the entire 80-minute run-time, sharing a plethora of lines. By the end of the project, when the rehearsal process and performances were finished, I had successfully played my part in helping to put up a full-length, mainstage play within the theatre department, and I learned innumerable lessons in directing, leading, and general theatre experience that I had not previously had the opportunity to learn.

Download

Share

COinS